CHAPTER XIII.
ELECTRO-DYNAMICS.
The history of electro-dynamics is very instructive from our point of view. The title of Ampère's immortal work is, Théorie des phénomènes electro-dynamiques, uniquement fondée sur expérience. He therefore imagined that he had made no hypotheses; but as we shall not be long in recognising, he was mistaken; only, of these hypotheses he was quite unaware. On the other hand, his successors see them clearly enough, because their attention is attracted by the weak points in Ampère's solution. They made fresh hypotheses, but this time deliberately. How many times they had to change them before they reached the classic system, which is perhaps even now not quite definitive, we shall see.
I. Ampère's Theory.—In Ampère's experimental study of the mutual action of currents, he has operated, and he could operate only, with closed currents. This was not because he denied the existence or possibility of open currents. If two conductors are positively and negatively charged and brought into communication by a wire, a current is set up which passes from one to the
